Franklin Richards (Earth-616)
; formerly , , | Relatives = John Richards (paternal great-grandfather); Ted Richards (paternal great-uncle; deceased); Nathaniel Richards (paternal grandfather); Evelyn Richards (paternal grandmother, deceased); Franklin Storm (maternal grandfather, deceased); Mary Storm (maternal grandmother, deceased); Marygay Jewel Dinkins (maternal great-aunt); Bones (maternal 1st cousin once rempved); Human Torch (Jonathan Storm) (maternal uncle, deceased); Tara Richards (patenral aunt); unnamed paternal uncle; Kristoff Vernard (alleged patenral uncle); Sue Storm (Invisible Woman) (mother); Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) (father); Valeria Richards (sister); Ben Grimm (Thing) (godfather); Alicia Masters (godmother); | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Baxter Building, New York, New York; formerly Four Freedoms Plaza; Pier 4; Massachusetts Academy | Gender = Male | Height = 4'8" | Weight = 100 lbs | Eyes = Blue | Hair = Blond | UnusualFeatures = | Citizenship = American | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Student | Education = | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = New York, New York | Creators = Stan Lee; Jack Kirby | First = Fantastic Four Annual #6 | HistoryText = Early Years Franklin Richards is the son of Reed and Susan Richards, who are better known as Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, the first modern team of superhuman adventurers. Reed and Susan Richards developed their superhuman powers as a result of exposure to cosmic radiation during a flight in outer space. Their exposure to this radiation also had important consequences for their son, who was born years later. First, the radiation somehow affected Susan Richards' body in such a way as to give her serious difficulties in giving birth. For unknown reasons, soon before she was to give birth to Franklin, Susan Richards' blood cells were observed to be carrying a strange form of energy that threatened the lives of both herself and the baby. Presumably, this energy effect is linked with Susan Richards' superhuman powers over energy that enable her to become invisible and to create force fields. With Franklin's birth imminent, Reed Richards and his teammates, the Human Torch and the Thing, journeyed into the anti-matter dimension called the Negative Zone to find the only means known to Mister Fantastic of saving his wife and unborn son: the Cosmic Control Rod wielded by Annihilus, one of its most dangerous inhabitants. Mister Fantastic succeeded in obtaining the Rod and drained energy from it into a special container, which he and his two colleagues then brought to their own dimension. Reed Richards succeeded in using the energy from the Rod in bringing the energy in his wife's blood under control, and she safely gave birth to a healthy son. The infant was named Franklin Benjamin Richards in honor of his late grandfather, Franklin Storm, and the Richards' best friend, Benjamin J. Grimm. In his early years the sorceress Agatha Harkness acted as Franklin's nanny and protector. The cosmic radiation that had given Reed and Susan Richards their superhuman powers also resulted in affecting the genetic structure of their son: Franklin was born a mutant. Unlike most superhuman mutants, whose unusual powers do not emerge until the mutant reaches puberty, Franklin began manifesting his superhuman powers at a very early age. In the normal course of events, Franklin's psionic powers would presumably increasingly emerge as he grew older until they reach their full, vast potential when he achieves maturity. However, this normal process was ruined by Annihilus, who, during a later conflict with the Fantastic Four, placed Franklin within a machine that triggered the release of his full psionic potential. Franklin was too young and inexperienced to control the vast energies building up within him, and Reed Richards feared that his son would be unable to prevent himself from releasing enough psionic energy to destroy all life on Earth. Unable to find another means of dealing with the problem in the short space of time left before disaster would strike, Reed was forced to use a device that rendered Franklin comatose, and thus unable to project psionic energy. Months later, while the robot Ultron-7 was attacking the Fantastic Four and other superhuman beings, energy radiating from the robot affected Franklin's mind and caused him to unwittingly release great psionic energies which overpowered and defeated Ultron. Franklin was thus awakened from his coma, and his psionic powers were apparently now back at the level at which they were before Annihilus subjected him to his machine. Later, Franklin used his powers to age himself into adulthood within a very brief space of time. (In this form he became known as Avatar.) Although his psyche remained that of a child, Franklin could now make full use of his psionic potential. Realizing he still lacked the emotional maturity to control his vast powers, Franklin transformed himself back into a child, imposing psychic "dampers" in his mind so he could not use his full powers until he achieved the necessary psychological maturity. However, Franklin did thereafter manifest the power to foresee events from alternate futures in his dreams. Unknown to his parents, Franklin became a member of Power Pack, a team of children possessing superhuman powers. He then took the "super hero" name Tattletale due to his ability to foresee the future. In one adventure involving Power Pack, Franklin even journeyed through outer space to the throne world of the alien Snarks and back to Earth. Franklin's "dream" power has also continued to evolve in other ways. Later, claiming that Franklin's presence in this timeline would lead to destruction, Reed Richards' father Nathaniel abducted the child into the future. (In fact, Nathaniel had learned about the Fantastic Four's forthcoming disappearance upon defeating Onslaught, although he did not know about Onslaught himself.) Nathaniel raised Franklin for years in the future, training him to be a warrior and to master his superhuman powers. The adolescent Franklin journeyed back in time, arriving in the Fantastic Four's headquarters mere moments after Nathaniel had abducted him as a child. The teenage Franklin called himself Psi-Lord, and wielded vast psionic powers, although they remained far short of his full potential. For a long period Reed Richards was held captive by an enemy known as Hyperstorm. During this period, Franklin founded the Fantastic Force, a new super-hero team to carry on his father's work of protecting humanity. Finally, however, Psi-Lord somehow was removed from the Fantastic Four's time and was replaced by the child Franklin, as he had been at the time that Nathaniel had abducted him. Nathaniel claimed that Hyperstorm must have arranged the substitution, and that the Psi-Lord version of Franklin no longer existed in the Fantastic Four's timeline. (Ironically, according to Nathaniel Richards, Hyperstorm is the son of the Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers of yet another alternate future.) The malevolent entity Onslaught captured Franklin in order to manipulate the child's latent ability to reshape reality. Ultimately, the Fantastic Four and many of the Avengers dove into Onslaught's energy form in order to disrupt it; when the X-Men then launched a full assault on Onslaught, he was seemingly destroyed. The general public believed that the Fantastic Four and many of the Avengers had perished as well. However, Franklin, who remained safely on Earth, had unconsciously used his vast psionic powers to create a "pocket" universe in another reality, to which he transported the vanished heroes. There the Fantastic Four and the missing Avengers led radically different lives with no memories of their pasts in their native universe. Franklin subsequently embarked on a journey through other alternate realities with the swamp creature called the Man-Thing, the other-dimensional talking waterfowl Howard the Duck, the alien Tana Nile, and the mutants Artie Maddicks and Leech. Franklin's companions finally realized that Franklin himself had created these worlds with his psionic powers.''Daydreamers'' Franklin was soon approached by the Celestial Ashema, who showed Franklin that his parents (and Earth’s other heroes) were alive. Franklin had subconsciously shunted them into a new reality, another Earth which resided in the blue globe Franklin had been carrying with him since Onslaught. Ashema forced Franklin to make a choice: one of the worlds had to die. Literally fleeing from this awful choice, Franklin plummeted over a cliff, nearly dying. To resurrect him, Ashema melded with Franklin’s consciousness, acquiring his human perspective on life and death. Through Franklin, a compromise was struck: both worlds could live, but Earth’s heroes had to leave Franklin’s creation and return to their own world. ''Heroes Reborn: The Return''. Franklin’s alternate Earth was later transported to our solar system by Dr. Doom and placed in orbit on the far side of the sun, where it was named Counter-Earth. Reunited with his family, Franklin moved into Pier Four, the Fanastic Four’s new waterfront headquarters. Franklin got a pet, a dog-like creature named Puppy who seemed a younger, smaller twin to the Inhumans’ Lockjaw, and a new caretaker, the dimensionally displaced Caledonia. Franklin also acquired a sister when the time-dancing Valeria von Doom (claimed daughter of Susan Richards) joined the family. Franklin’s time at Pier Four proved brief; when catastrophe loomed, Reed and Sue sent Franklin, Puppy, and Caledonia to Haven, a school located on the far side of the universe, where they were soon joined by Valeria. When Franklin dreamed of Valeria’s death at the hand of the cosmic force Abraxas, he and Valeria returned to Earth. When Abraxas did appear, Valeria and Franklin combined their powers to resurrect the only being capable of stopping Abraxas: Galactus. Franklin learned that Valeria was the sister he had sent elsewhere, and he exhausted his remaining powers to restore her to his mother’s womb as an infant. Ordinary human By the wake of Mr. Fantastic's activation of the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Abraxas, Franklin lost all his powers in the process of reforming Galactus and thus became a normal child. After Valeria’s birth, Franklin felt ignored and unloved, and his attempts to regain his parents attention inadvertently led to the creation of the mathematical menace Modulus. Shortly afterwards, Doctor Doom made a pact with the Haazareth, to gain vast magical power. During Doom's attacks upon the Fantastic Four, Franklin was sucked into Hell by the Haazareth. After the defeat of Doom, his parents rescued him. Franklin had a hard time coping with the traumatic experience of being tormented in Hell. With help from the Thing and Franklin's mother, he made a complete mental recovery. Because of the danger of their adventures, child Welfare questioned the safety of the Baxter Building, due to the numerous super-villain attacks on it. After much reluctance, Reed and Sue agreed that if necessary, their children could be taken away. However, an initial condition was that a "dummy" safe house was to be set up, and a press release to be announced that the children had already been moved. It is uncertain exactly which of the FF's enemies carried out the attack, or why (there is speculation that Reed carried out the attack himself to allow him and Sue to keep the kids), but it was enough to convince Child Welfare. Onslaught Reborn When the Scarlet Witch used her powers to depower countless mutants, including Magneto and Prof. Xavier, the power lost by Magneto and Xavier combined and restored Onslaught (whose consciousness still remained lingering after his death), who was now determined to kill Franklin Richards and every hero in existence. Onslaught took control of both the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic in an attempt to get Franklin but was interrupted by the Thing and Invisible Woman. When Franklin fled to Counter-Earth, Onslaught followed him. While the Avengers assessed their new threat which did not exist until Franklin appeared, they took into account what the boy said about Onslaught. However, they were in disbelief that he was the son of Susan Storm and Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four as they were not married in their reality. After a brief skirmish, the heroes and villains decided to work together to defeat Onslaught, but it was Rikki "Bucky" Barnes who defeated him, using a Fantasticar to send them both through the Negative Zone barrier in the Fantastic Four's lab, trapping them. Franklin returned home, Bucky found herself on Earth 616, and Onslaught was last seen floating outside the Area 42 Prison in the Negative Zone. Secret Invasion In the beginning of the Skrull strike on Earth, the Skrull Lyja, impersonating Sue Richards, sends the entire Baxter Building into the Negative Zone with Franklin, Valeria, and Johnny Storm inside. Franklin and Valeria team up with Johnny and the Thing to fight the Skrulls. Benjamin Grimm asks the help of the Terrible Tinkerer, who is an inmate in the prison for the unregistered villains in the Negative Zone. The Tinkerer refuses, seeing no reason to help the people who arrested him as he was taking his grandchildren out for ice cream, and sent him to prison without due process. Franklin and Valeria plead with the Tinkerer. They strongly remind the old man of his own grandchildren. He is moved to tears, repents and agrees to help, in exchange for his freedom and reunion with his grandkids.Franklin briefly asked his mother and father why people hate mutants and if that means they hate him. Dark Reign During the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four miniseries; Franklin finds himself along with his sister under siege by Norman Osborn, Venom and a high number of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. The siblings were on their own due to their father's experiment which left him unreachable and the other members of the Fantastic Four stranded in alternate realities. Valeria manages to separate Osborn from the rest of the H.A.M.M.E.R. agents by using a bureaucratic technicality and by having them underestimate her. Osborn is led into a room where he faces Franklin who is wearing a Spider-man mask and calls him a villain. In the next scene the two are seen being chased by Osborn down a hall who is getting ready to shoot them. The Fantastic Four have resurfaced by this point with an angry Invisible Woman telling Osborn "Step away from the children". Angry, he snaps that she should try to make him. Sue obliges by smashing him against a wall by using one of her invisible force fields. Osborn retaliates by summoning his H.A.M.M.E.R. agents and Venom. None however manage to pass through Sue's invisible force field barrier. Mr. Fantastic informs Osborn to leave the Baxter Building and not to come back, dismissing him. Infuriated, he attempts to shoot Reed, only to be shot by Franklin in turn. Although all are shocked, none understand how Franklin managed to shoot Norman since Franklin was only wielding a toy gun (both Johnny and Ben examine the gun once it was shot) hinting that perhaps some of Franklin's reality altering abilities have resurfaced. An alternate version of himself from the future returned, and stated "Rest....and remember what you are.". Moment's later after being put to bed, Franklin created a Universe with his powers. This suggests that his nigh unlimited power has returned. Whether he has regained all his power is yet unknown. | Powers = Franklin Richards is a mutant with vast psionic powers. When Franklin achieves the conscious use of his full powers, he will have telepathic powers, tremendous telekinetic powers, the ability to fire enormously powerful energy blasts, and the ability to rearrange the molecular structure of matter and energy, even up to a cosmic scale. His powers are so great that he has been compared to the Celestials , although it is said to be even greater than them, rather than other mutants. This accusation is made by Doctor Doom. He has enough power to even scare Galactus. In terms of unrealized potential, Franklin was generally considered for years to be one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, to the level of Magneto and Charles Xavier. Reality Manipulation ''(latent): Ability to manipulate reality itself. Virtually omnipotent reality warping powers on a potentially infinite level. His abilities are so great that even at such a young age he can create “pocket” universes in alternate realities (A pocket universe is a cosmos that does not equal our own in size.). After regaining his powers from a temporary loss, the first thing Franklin did with his nigh unlimited powers was to create a Universe, easily. *Molecular Manipulation: Ability to rearrange the molecular structure of matter and energy up to a cosmic scale. '''Telepathy ''(latent): He can read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others within an unlimited radius. His notable abilities include: *Telepathic Illusion: Ability to create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring. *Telepathic Cloak: Can mask his presence from being detected by others. He can extend these defenses to others around him as well. *Mind Link: Ability to develop a mental link with any person which remains as a connection to that individual. *Telepathic Camouflage: Ability to mask himself, and other peoples' presence from those around him. Can telepathically disguise himself, making his appearance to those around him quite different than what they actually are, for example, changing the appearance of clothing, as well as more detailed disguising. *Mind Control: Ability to control the minds of others. *Mind Possession: Ability to possess the mind of another and use that being's body as his own. *Mind Alteration: Ability to alter the minds of others by force of will. *Mental Amnesia: Ability to cause loss of particular memories and amnesia in another person or even in a group of people. *Psionic Shield: Ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of himself and of others' minds. *Psionic Blasts: Can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and can even kill an adversary. *Astral Projection: Ability to Astral Travel and communicate with others astrally through his own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others. In the astral realm, he can use his powers to create "ectoplasmic" objects. *Mental Detection: Can sense the presence of other superhuman mutants within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being. *Mind Transferal: Able to transfer both his mind and powers into other host bodies should his own physical body be somehow killed. '''Telekinesis ''(latent): Possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects, and to some extent energy psionically. He can “lift” as much as 10 tons of weight at such an undeveloped age and potentially an unlimited amount of weight. This enables him to “fly” at great speed. *Bio-Blasts: Ability to fire enormously powerful energy blasts which he generates from his body's extrasensory potential. '''Precognitive Dreams ''(latent): Precognitive abilities, which manifest themselves in his dreams, enabling him to envision possible future events. Although there are countless possible futures, Franklin foresees the most probable future path, and therefore his predictions usually come true. Franklin seemingly cannot foresee events more than roughly a few days in the future. Franklin's precognitive power developed to the point at which he could see images of future events when conscious. '''Dream-Self Projection ''(latent)'': Ability to place himself in a trance-like state while remaining fully conscious. While he is in this trance, he can project an intangible, ghostlike image of himself to another location, through which he can see and hear what goes on at the location. What Franklin has called the “dreams” he has while in this state are not truly dreams, but his conscious awareness of the environment into which he has projected his “dream-self.” Franklin Richards has imposed mental blocks within his own mind to prevent him from using most of his psionic potential while he is still such a young child. It is possible that the strength of these blocks has faded over time, or that they cannot prevent him from utilizing his full powers unconsciously, as he did in creating the alternate reality to which he dispatched his parents and others following their clash with Onslaught. The mental blocks also work only when Franklin is in his physical body; his astral form can apparently use all of his psionic potential if it has separated from his physical form. The mental blocks did not restrict Franklin from using his precognitive abilities, which manifest themselves in his dreams, enabling him to envision possible future events. | Abilities = | Strength = Franklin Richards possesses the normal human strength of a boy of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. | Weaknesses = | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Notes = | Trivia = * It has often been speculated that Earth's human race is evolving into a superhuman race with great psionic powers, and Franklin may be an early example of what humanity will someday become. * Franklin's age, which is the subject of much controversy within the Marvel Comics Scaling Timeline, has never been fully stated, although often joked about or hinted at. | Marvel = | Wikipedia = | Links = * Marvel Directory * Franklin Richards (Earth-811) - The history of the "Days of Future Past" Franklin Richards. }} Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (The 198) Category:Telepaths Category:Telekinesis Category:Reality Warpers Category:Precogs Category:Richards Family Category:Storm Family Category:Sega - Thor Category:Sega - Captain America Category:Fear Itself